Table Of ContentLife Span Perspectives
of Suicide
Time-Lines in the Suicide Process
Life Span Perspectives
of Suicide
Time-Lines in the Suicide Process
Edited by
Antoon A. Leenaars, Ph.D.
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Catalog1ng-1n-PublIcatlon Data
Life span perspectives of suicide : time-lines 1n the suicid e process
/ edited by Antoon A. Leenaars.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and Index.
ISBN 978-1-4899-0726-4
1. Suicide—United States. 2. Life cycle, Human. I. Leenaars ,
Antoon A.
HV6548.U5L54 1990
362.2'82'0973—dc20 90-49557
CIP
ISBN 978-1-4899-0726-4 ISBN 978-1-4899-0724-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0724-0
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
To Edwin S. Shneidman,
who taught me about suicide's complexity
Contributors
W. D. G. Balance • 813 Pemberton, Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan 48230
John Benjafield • Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines,
Ontario, Canada L2S 3Al
Alan L. Berman • Department of Psychology, American University, Washing
ton, D.C. 20016
Allan Brooks • Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein Medical Center,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19141
Pamela Cantor • Department of Psychiatry, The Cambridge Hospital, Harvard
Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Bonnie Frank Carter • Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein Medical
Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19141
Dorothy Counts • Department of Anthropology, University of Waterloo , Water
loo, Ontario, Canada N2L 301
Norman L. Farberow • The Suicide Prevention Center of the Family Services of
Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90006
AntoonA. Leenaars • Private Practice, 880 Ouelette Avenue, Suite 702, Wind
sor, Ontario, Canada N9A lC7
vii
viii CONTRIBUTORS
David Lester • Department of Psychology, Stockton State College, Pomona,
New Jersey 08240
John T. Maltsberger • Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Boston,
Massachusetts 02108
Ronald W. Maris • The Center for the Study of Suicide, University of South
Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
John L. Mcintosh • Department of Psychology, Indiana University of South
Bend, South Bend, Indiana 46634
Jerome A. Motto • Department of Psychiatry and Langley Porter Psychiatric
Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143
David P. Phillips • Department of Sociology, University of California at San
Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
Victor I. Reus • Department of Psychiatry and Langley Porter Psychiatric
Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143
Joseph Richman • Professor Emeritus, Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
New York, New York 10461
Edwin S. Shneidman • Professor of Thanatology Emeritus, University of Cali
fornia, Los Angeles, California: 90024
Daniel G. Smith • Department of Sociology, University of California at San
Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
Steven Stack • Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, Detroit,
Michigan 48202
Susanne Wenckstern • The Board of Education for the City of Windsor, Wind
sor, Ontario, Canada, N9A 6KI
Preface
In recent years, a great deal of interest has been focused on suicide in the elderly
and in the young. However, in line with modem trends in psychology, sociology,
psychiatry, anthropology, and other human health fields, interest has now shifted to
suicide across the life span, from childhood through adulthood to old age. This
book has been conceptualized within this developing tradition.
There are various ways in which life's timelines can be conceptualized.
Developmental theory, we believe, should be open-ended. This has widened-and
will continue to widen-our understanding of many complicated human acts
including suicide. Though suicide is in many ways the same across the entire life
span, understanding the time-lines in the suicidal process is imperative. To do so,
however, is, we believe, challenging.
In this volume, we attempt to engage in the process of understanding suicide
from a developmental perspective. To do this, we have been fortunate to obtain the
cooperation of a highly competent group of contributors. One interesting footnote
to our list of authorities is that they represent suicidologists from across the life
span-a few who are at the beginning of their careers, a large number in their
middle years, and a few who are in the Indian summer of their professional lives.
By way of background, the following introduces our contributors in order of
their appearance in the text:
John Benjafield is professor of psychology, and director of the Institute for
Applied Human Development at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Can-
ix
x PREFACE
ada. Benjafield, a nonsuicidologist, has provided a larger metaperspective. He has
published extensively on historical perspectives and developmental psychology.
David Lester is professor of psychology at Stockton State College, Pomona,
New Jersey. Lester is current vice president of the International Association for
Suicide Prevention (IASP). He has published a number of books and literally
hundreds of papers.
Ronald W. Maris is professor of sociology and preventive medicine at the
University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, where he directs the
Center for the Study of Suicide. He is a past president of the American Association
of Suicidology (AAS) and the current editor of Suicide and Life-Threatening
Behavior (SLTB). Having published extensively, he has served as an expert witness
on cases dealing with wrongful death and suicide.
Edwin S. Shneidman is professor of thanatology emeritus at the University of
California at Los Angeles. He is one of the founding fathers of modern suicidology,
having begun the AAS and its journal, SLTB. He has received numerous awards,
most recently a Distinguished Professional Contributions Award from the Ameri
can Psychological Association. Among his extensive list of publications is the
recently published Definition of Suicide.
John L. McIntosh is associate professor of psychology at Indiana University at
South Bend, Indiana, and a research associate at the Center for Gerentological
Education, University of Notre Dame. He has published numerous papers and
books, the latest being Suicide and Its Aftermath, coauthored by E. Dunne and K.
Dunne-Maxim, and has received AAS's Edwin Shneidman Award for his research
on the elderly.
David P. Phillips is professor of sociology at the University of California, San
Diego in La Jolla, California. Having received the AAS's Edwin Shneidman Award
for outstanding contribution in research in suicidology, his work on suicide and the
contagion-Werther-effect has resulted in major reflections on the role of the
media in suicide. Phillips has published extensively on the epidemiology of suicide
and on the subject of motor vehicle fatalities.
Daniel G. Smith is a graduate student at the department of sociology, Univer
sity of California, San Diego.
Antoon A. Leenaars is a psychologist in private practice in Windsor, Ontario,
Canada. Leenaars has served as an expert witness in cases dealing with wrongful
death and suicide. Currently he is president of the Canadian Association for
Suicide Prevention (CASP) and a board member of AAS. Having received AAS's
Shneidman Award, he has published extensively on suicide, including the recently
released Suicide Notes (Human Sciences Press).
Susanne Wenckstern is a psychology consultant at the Windsor Board of
Education, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She is locally and nationally active address
ing suicide in the schools, being a member of CASP's national school committee,
PREFACE xi
and has published a number of papers and chapters on suicidology and co-edited a
book, Suicide Prevention in Schools.
Alan L. Berman, a diplomate in clinical psychology, is a professor of psychol
ogy at American University, Washington, D.C. He is a past president of the AAS
and the recipient of the Shneidman Award. Berman, recognized as an expert on
youth suicide, has published over 50 professional articles and chapters and has
served as an expert witness on cases dealing with wrongful death and suicide.
W. D. G. Balance, a psychology professor, has published extensively in a
number of human health areas, most recently suicide and eating disorders. He is
especially known in suicidology for his collaborative work with Leenaars on
suicide notes.
Joseph Richman is professor emeritus at Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
New York. He has been active, including as a board member, in AAS since its
inception in 1969. Having received AAS's Dublin Award for a lifetime of contribu
tions to suicidology, Richman has specialized in crisis intervention and family
therapy. He is known for his focus on positive thinking, well-being, and humor
throughout the life span, devoting special attention on the lifestyles of the elderly.
Jerome A. Motto, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San
Francisco, is also very active at the Medical Center as the associate director of its
Psychiatric Consultation Service. Motto is a past president of AAS, past secretary
general of IASp, and the recipient of AAS's Dublin Award. His work in depressive
and suicidal states has focused on risk assessment and clinical management.
Victor I. Rues, associate professor of psychiatry, University of California,
San Francisco, also holds the position of medical director at the University'S
Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Hospital. He is a Fellow of the American Psychi
atric Association, has served as an editorial reviewer to 18 journals, and has
published extensively in the area of biological aspects of depression, including the
area of suicide.
Steven Stack is professor of sociology, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.
Stack, a recipient of AAS's Shneidman Award for his outstanding contribution in
research in suicidology, has recently focused on media impacts on suicide and the
importance of the family in suicide.
Dorothy Counts is professor (and chairperson) of anthropology at the Univer
sity of Waterloo , Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. She is known for her field research in
West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, on its political and economic
change, religious syncretism and cargo cult activities, aging and death, domestic
violence, and suicide. Among many publications, she has produced a number of
papers on suicide from an anthropological perspective.
Bonnie Frank Carter is director of research and program director for Youth
Suicide Prevention Services and for the Violence Postvention Program, Albert
Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia. Her work and publications have delllt with
